Doug McIntyre: Waking from the big dreams of Tony V

I'm going to miss his endless self-promotion, his habitual junkets out of town, his chronic capacity to over-promise and underdeliver.

Yes, I'm going to miss "Dreaming Big" with Antonio Villaraigosa.

For eight years as mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa has provided the low hanging fruit for countless columns in this newspaper and hour upon hour of talk radio chatter. He has been my personal economic stimulus package and for that I thank him.

But as a resident of Los Angeles Tony V's exit from City Hall is like Christmas in July; the day we've had circled on our calendars and looked forward to with gleeful anticipation.

Today, Eric Garcetti takes the oath of office as mayor of L.A. and the task of restoring competent stewardship to America's second largest city begins. Not a day too soon.

Still, his two terms have not been without achievements.

Villaraigosa spearheaded the campaign for Measure R, which has greatly accelerated the expansion of a desperately needed light rail system that will be an indispensable part of life in L.A. long after our generation is forgotten.

The mayor can legitimately take a bow for leaving L.A. safer than he found it.

Crime is down significantly -- as it is in nearly every large metropolitan area in America, so how much of that is his doing I'll leave to academics. But had crime gone up, guys like me would have pounced on him, so he's earned a pat on the back on his way out the door.

Sadly, the rest of his report card is peppered with D's and F's or incompletes.

While Villaraigosa made a sincere attempt to light a fire under the Los Angeles Unified School District's collective rear-ends, the jury is out on what his takeover of a handful of schools actually accomplished. The LAUSD continues to struggle -- remember Admiral Brewer? -- and is currently enmeshed in an epidemic of sexual molestation crimes that are both a national embarrassment and a multimillion-dollar liability, along with a dropout rate, while improving, that's still unacceptably high.

Environmentalists may hail the mayor's push for green technology and a coal-free Department of Water and Power, but ratepayers are left holding the bag -- nonplastic of course. Our water and power bills have skyrocketed, helping fuel the exodus of businesses while DWP salaries soared and exploding water mains have turned our streets into rice paddies.

A million trees planted! A million potholes filled! Not even close.

Antonio Villaraigosa leaves behind thousands of miles of crumbling sidewalks, a forest of untrimmed trees and roads that haven't seen asphalt since Duke Snider roamed centerfield.

Trash fees have tripled. The phone tax has been hiked. Parking meters have been jacked up. While Mayor Villaraigosa was "Dreaming Big," reality was harsh. The legacy of his two terms includes severe cuts to basic city services. While the mayor built bike lanes, he closed parks, libraries and fire stations.

And let's not forget, he was slapped with the largest ethics fine in the 200-year history of Los Angeles while some of his campaign bundlers were bundled off to prison. Yet, as always, the biggest crime is what's legal.

The entrenched powers of L.A. are more entrenched than ever thanks to Antonio Villaraigosa.

He made headlines for refusing to evict Occupy L.A. protesters camped out on the lawn at City Hall. But he also refused to evict the big-moneyed lobbyists camped out in the backrooms of City Hall.

His legacy includes an unemployment rate above state and national averages. On his watch we've produced more poor people than jobs. Homelessness is up 16 percent in the past two years. Los Angeles continues to be ranked as one of the worst cities to do business and the middle and upper-middle class continue to move away in alarming numbers.

How long before Mayor Garcetti steps on the budgetary land mines left by his predecessor? I give it six months before Villaraigosa's final "balanced budget" is revealed to be just another of Tony's big dreams.

Villaraigosa's obsession with the showbiz aspects of the job trumped whatever feeble interest he had in the details. He earned a reputation as a dilettante and behind that electric smile was an ugly vindictiveness toward those who dared cross him.

But ultimately the great tragedy of Antonio Villaraigosa is the opportunity for greatness he squandered.

As the first Latino mayor in modern L.A. history, he was the right man in the right place to lead an honest discussion on the foundational problem besetting our city, illegal immigration.

Sanctuary policies have made L.A. a principal destination for illegal immigrants, increasing the demand for every conceivable city and social service while lowering the wages of working people and turning the once great LAUSD system into a giant ESL program. Rather than open a door to a solution as Nixon did in China or Clinton on welfare reform, Villaraigosa simply demagogued the issue.

I don't doubt Antonio Villaraigosa loves Los Angeles and there are many who love him in return. But by any measure his two terms as mayor were a failure and not because the market collapsed in 2008 -- although obviously that didn't help.

Villaraigosa failed because his political ambitions and narcissism let him live in a dream L.A. while ignoring the actual Los Angeles the rest of us call home.

Doug McIntyre's column appears Sunday and Wednesday. He can be reached at: Doug@KABC.com.